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eMarketer reports that online video ads are one of the fastest-growing online ad formats. Research also shows it is one of the most effective.

Analysis shows that the performance of a variety of display ad formats served in the US during June, including in-stream video ads, and video player-ad interfaces, performed dramatically better than both standard banners and banners involving rich media, with or without video.

It appears people would just rather look and listen than read. Everyone promoting products and services online needs to pay attention to this trend. In our opinion, it’s only going to grow bigger.

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Admit it, you’ve been following the Charlie Sheen debacle. Even those of us who don’t “do” pop culture have tuned in to see what will happen next. I’ll admit it — I’ve followed the tiger blood-filled warlock on Twitter “just to see.”Back in December we talked about DecorMyEyes and their founder’s negative publicity campaign. Charlie Sheen’s recently train wrecked life is, in a way, a bigger, louder version of the same strategy. So what can we learn from Charlie Sheen?

Publicity is publicity. When it comes down to it, if what you want is for people to know and remember you, how you draw their attention is irrelevant. Good or bad, if your publicity is enough to draw the eyes of the world, you’ve accomplished your goal.

Negative publicity is more effective. At least when it comes to getting attention. I guarantee you that more people know Charlie Sheen now than before his breakdown. Recently Sandra Bullock has been in the news for donating $1M to recovery efforts around the world. It’s a beautiful act for which she deserves recognition — and yet, had she been caught in some compromising position, it would be all over every news channel and media source and everyone in the world would know about it. That’s just the way of the world. People love to watch train wrecks. Think about reality TV shows. People don’t watch Jersey Shore because it’s quality entertainment. Even with specific regard to social media, when a company accidentally sends out an unprofessional tweet, it’s all over the news — and gains them more followers.

Negative publicity will kill your business. Or will it? When all this stuff with Charlie Sheen started happening, I thought, “That man will never work again.” And yet, here he is with a new TV show in the works. When it came out and was all over the news that Taco Bell uses questionable meat, I thought, “Surely people will stop eating there.” But no. As contrary to reason as it may be, it just doesn’t work that way. Taco Bell is running a damage control campaign to recover from the debacle, and it’s working brilliantly.

But what does any of this have to do with building a business with customers who trust you and believe in your quality product or service? Maybe it’s a tactic for you to try. While I wouldn’t recommend it, I’d be interested to see the results. More likely, though, it’s just good information about the way the world of publicity works!

What do you think — is Charlie Sheen’s train wreck of a life a true breakdown or a brilliant marketing ploy? Would you ever use negative publicity to garner attention?

It has been one of those thankfully infrequent weeks where the world completely changes for many people. The earthquake, tsunami and aftershocks have changed Japan for many years to come, if not forever. The lives of the Japanese, as well as people living in Japan, and many other people around the world became entirely different in an instant. And in this historical moment, we’ve been reminded of the true power of social media — connection.

Google immediately created a Person Finder to help people in Japan (and those with loved ones in Japan) find their loved ones. Within seconds of the incident, Facebook and Twitter were flooded with status updates relaying news and images, and offering reports of people’s whereabouts and well being. The social media world became like one giant emergency broadcasting system, making all the important information available instantly and worldwide.

Social media was created for one reason — to connect people. As it has grown and developed over the last near decade, that purpose has become diluted. While advances in social media have their own purposes and benefits, it can be valuable to get back to basics and remember what’s really important. It’s all about people. That’s true in life, as well as in both business and social media marketing. Be authentic, and remember that people are people and not numbers. In that, you will find great success — and it’ll feel good, too.

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In case you don’t know — but of course you do — we are a full-service online marketing agency. We design and build websites, streamline our clients’ SEO, implement online ads, create email marketing campaigns, craft and manage newsletters and more — pretty much anything we can do to help grow our clients’ businesses.

One of our many services includes getting to know our clients’ businesses well enough that we can write social media posts for them. Not scamming-the-system, impersonal, keyword-spam-type posts. The same kind of quality posts you’d get if you were writing them in house, with a focus on “infotainment,” our favorite buzz word of late.

There are many agencies in the country, and even the world, that offer this kind of service. But even when you’ve hired someone to do all your social media posting, you can’t just ignore what’s happening for your brand on social media. It’s important for you to know how to use the social medias in which your brand is involved. Not only is it important for you to be aware of what’s happening for your business online — it’s important for you to know enough to advertise your social media efforts offline, as well as spread the word to your circles online. There is a big pool of social media fans and followers in your current customers, and you know how to access them better than your online marketing agency.

So get in there, understand what’s going on, and support your agency’s efforts. Together, you’ll grow your business in a way your agency couldn’t without you.

Need some online resources? We post all the time about ways to increase your social media skills and grow your business online!

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Whew! Hi! I feel like I haven’t looked up from work in days. Things are busy, busy, busy over here and we are loving it! Every day, it seems, we have new clients, new projects, new missions, new platforms, new techniques, new knowledge and new wisdom.

In the spirit of newness and ever-changing technology, today we offer you this: Talking Heads. No, not the band. A talking head video is basically a small person who walks onto your website and tells your viewer something really important. You know how important and popular videos on websites are right now, and a talking head video is even more interesting and even more engaging!

Aside from just being really cool, talking heads draw more attention than a basic video because they’re still fairly unique. They also start playing immediately, gaining the audience of those visitors who might never press play on a standard website video.

Want to see one in action? Visit America’s Business Management, one of our recent clients, and check it out! Then, come back here and tell us what you think!

We hear these questions fairly regularly from our clients. There seems to be a feeling that blogging was SOOOOO ten years ago, and that advanced social platforms have rendered it obsolete. That is simply not the case. In fact, blogging is more popular now than it was years ago. Perhaps that’s because more people are online than ten years ago. Perhaps it’s because the evolving and cutting edge blogging platforms — like Tumblr and WordPress — are exciting and fun. Or perhaps it’s because through the years, people have realized just how useful blogging is. In any case, we always suggest our clients use blogs. Here are some of our many reasons.

Share your passion. You do what you do because you love it. You’re passionate about it. And blogging is an excellent way to share that passion. Your passion will ignite your readers’ passions, and that’s all good for you.

Share your knowledge. When you create a blog and write about something you know, you are positioning yourself as someone who is knowledgeable about your industry or topic. When you write consistent, solid blog posts that are interesting and accurate, you will quickly establish your validity as an expert. And who would you rather take advice and buy things from — an expert or just some guy?

Attract different readers. Many blogging platforms — WordPress and Tumblr included — are actually a social network all their own. That means people go to WordPress or Tumblr just to be on WordPress or Tumblr and browse around. On these kinds of blogging platforms, you will get readers who otherwise might never have found you. And, if they like what you have to say, many of them will visit your website or convert in some other way!

Create more content. All the content you create links back to you. You might say, “All roads lead to Rome.” Blogging is a great way to generate deep, interesting content. Even SEO optimized content. And all that lovely, juicy content is indexed and searched by things like Google. So, blogging becomes yet another way that you can make yourself easier to find. And that, in itself, is enough of a reason to blog!

Yep, that’s right! But, I mean, would the world seem right if Facebook wasn’t shaking up one thing or another every week or two?

As of last week, Facebook has begun rolling out the new Facebook Pages. So what’s new? And what does this mean for you?

The new Facebook Pages look quite similar to the new profile layouts. You’ll see the now familiar strip of photos at the top of the page, as well as the navigation in the left column. The layout isn’t the only thing that has changed, though! Perhaps even bigger than the layout changes are the functionality changes. By default, you’ll now receive email notifications whenever someone posts or comments on any page you admin. Also — and this is the big one — you now have the option to use Facebook as your page. That means you can go out into the Facebook world and comment on your friends’ statuses and anything else as your page, rather than yourself. The opposite is true, too. You can now comment and interact on your page as yourself, rather than your page.

While the new changes can be a little daunting, they’re actually great news for all of us who use Facebook Pages. Why? Because the new changes allow us to interact more like a person with a dynamic profile than a business with a static and separate page. And, as we know, anything that can increase and improve our interaction in the social media world is good news for us!

The new Facebook Pages are rolling out gradually now and will reach everyone by March 10th. If you’d like to switch now, just navigate to your page and click the button that appears to get the new layout and functionality.

What do you think of the new Facebook Pages? Sound off in the comments!